Rika looked at the countless shapes passing by her in the darkness. Like blue diamonds, shining brightly, each one a world of its own. She sighed as she looked. For every world she could see, there were a dozen at least which she had been to already, and which had failed.

She looked behind her, and there were the failed worlds, each one showing a images of what had lead to its ruin. In one she saw Keiichi swinging a bat, killing Mion and Rena, who's broken bodies lay on the floor of his bedroom. Then, he ran to the phonebox, and spoke, though Rika could not hear his words. Then he clawed his throat out. But even as he killed his friends, even as he shouted madly at Oishi, even as he tore his own throat out, he was crying, crying from fear, and from self-hatred for what he had done.

She turned to another world, where Mion, or was it Shion, whipped her grandmother, stabbed Satoko, and threw her sister down a well. But even as she murdered her familly and friends, she was crying, tears falling for herself, and the boy she loved.

Another world, Rena scratched her arm, as she tried to get rid of imaginary maggots. She beat her father's girlfriend with a pipe, and hid the body. Then she cut up Teppei Hojo and buried him too. The diamond rotated to show her beating Mion with the blunt edge of her hatchet. Then she fought Keiichi on the roof. And even as she killed and hurt, even as she fought, she was crying, the drops falling for her madness and her sorrow.

Rika could not look at any more worlds. She had lived through all of them, she did not want to repeat them more than she had to.

Hanyuu floated up to her. "Shall we try another?" she asked.

Rika sighed, "Yes, once more."

Rika held Satoko, who had floods of tears running down her cheeks. There was blood on both their clothes. Rika looked over at the bodies that lay over to the side. Keiichi lay with a knife through his chest, while Rena lay next to him, her face beaten in by the bat that Keiichi had in his hand. Mion lay on the floor, having been beaten to death too. Next to her, Shion was weaping, the only one alive in the room besides the two young girls crouched in the corner. Shion had been the one to stab Keiichi, but not before he had killed her sister and Rena.

"How can you say that it's okay?" Rika turned at the sound of Shion's voice. "Onee's dead! How can it be okay?" Shion had clear fury in her eyes, mixed with her flowing tears.

Satoko cowered from Shion's fear, but Rika just stared at her. "Shouting won't bring her back Shion."

Shion laughed, it was a hollow, mad laugh, "Maybe not, but it feels better."

Rika recognised the growing signs of Hinamizawa syndrom, and sighed, knowing that everything would soon be over. She hugged a still weeping Satoko tighter, "Don't cry Satoko, what would Satoshi say if he saw you like this?"

At the mention of the boy's name, Shion's fury only increased, "Don't you dare talk about him. Why do you disrespect the dead so much?"